A Different Look At Your Sports Career Journey - Work in Sports podcast e101

Fan of the show Jordan asks "If you could go back and give your 22 year old self some advice, or things you would do differently in your career, what would they be?" I like this question, so I'm diving in. Come along and listen. 

Hi everybody I’m Brian Clapp, Director of Content for Work in Sports.com and this is the WorkinSports podcast.

Before I get into today’s question I want to answer a sub-question I get a lot – why does WorkinSports charge a subscription to access your sports jobs? This is a great question and here’s the straight truth – you know me, I’m painfully honest and I’m going to do that here.

As a business we have two basic options:

• Charge employers to post their jobs
• Have a subscription membership

On a surface level you probably think – yeah charge the employers! But think a little deeper. Many small to medium employers will say – no thanks, we don’t want to pay, or we can’t pay to post our jobs. Many big employers will say nah, we don’t have an interest in that.

So what does that mean for you?

A job board that only posts jobs from employers willing to pay them, is only presenting you a fraction of the total market. There are thousands of opportunities you’ll never see on their job board because they haven’t struck a deal with that particular employer.

We’ve gone about it differently.

Yes we charge our members, but it allows us to get all of the available jobs and bring them to you. Small medium and large size companies are all represented with us. You don’t miss a thing.

Plus, sports employers love our members, because you aren’t just blindly applying to a free sports job that sounds cool….but you aren’t qualified. Our members are willing to pay for access which is a method of pre-screening and makes our employment friends very happy.

So that’s it in a nutshell – we charge, but for good reason, and it benefits you in the long run and the short run.   

Alright enough of that – here’s this weeks question from Jordan in North Carolina, just a friendly reminder to our new listeners – email your question in to [email protected] and ifyou have your question answered on the show – BOOM – you get a free month of access.

Here’s Jordan’s question:

Hey Brian, I’m a 22 year old grad student - over the last few months I’ve been following your advice on the podcast and it’s made a huge difference for me. I’ve been more confident in interviews, both on video and in person, my cover letters are better, my goals are clearer, I know where my weak spots are an I’m working to fix them…I can’t thank you enough, I’ve learned more from your podcast that I have in 6 years of college and grad school. I heard you mention on a show once that you have been in the industry for 20 years, so I guess you are around 40 year old. Which makes me wonder… if you could go back and talk to your 22 year old version, what would you tell them or what would you do differently?

I love how forward Jordan is, YES Jordan I am 43 years old, which means I’ve been in the sports industry for 22 years. Yikes.

I like this question.

As a parent I think this way a great deal – what do I want them to know that I didn’t? or what can I teach them to do better than I did? or how can I inspire them to achieve more than I have?

Same thing here – what can I look back and share with all of you that could change your career trajectory. Wow, that’s a big challenge…but here goes, here are 5 things I would have done differently.

1:  I would have asked more questions.

2: I would have been more aggressive in college

3: I would have worked for a team

4: I would have taken more continuing ed courses

5: I would have looked to the future more

Listen in for more detail and explanation